Are You Seeking to Become One with God?

My Come, Follow Me studies for this week took me to John in a lesson 14-17 in a lesson titled “Continue Ye in My Love.” The lesson was preceded by this counsel: “As you read the Savior’s teachings in John 14-17, the Holy Ghost will help you identify messages for you. Record the impressions you receive.” The lesson was introduced with this information: 

Today we call it the “Last Supper,” but we don’t know if Jesus’s disciples fully realized, when they gathered for the annual Passover feast, that this would be their last meal with their Master before His death. Jesus, however, “knew that his hour was come” (John 13:1). He would soon face the suffering of Gethsemane, the betrayal and denial of His closest friends, and an agonizing death on the cross. Yet even with all of this looming before Him, Jesus’s focus was not on Himself but on His disciples. What would they need to know in the days and years ahead? Jesus’s tender teachings in John 14-17 reveal how He feels about His disciples, then and now. Among the many comforting truths He shared was the reassurance that, in one sense, He will never leave us. “If ye keep my commandments,” He promised, “ye shall abide in my love” (John 15:10).

This lesson included several principles, but I have chosen to focus on only one. It is found in John 17:11, 21-23 “Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are perfectly united.” Let us look at the scripture itself.

11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Jesus Christ prayed that His disciples would be one “even as,” meaning in the same way that He and the Father are one. What does it mean to be “one”? Are you one with your spouse – or with anyone else? Some of the ways that we can be one are (1) one in purpose, (2) one in faith, and (3) one in goals. Unity with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father requires righteousness.

Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught the following:

“Righteousness and unity are profoundly significant. When people love God with all their hearts and righteously strive to become like Him, there is less strife and contention in society. There is more unity. I love a true account that exemplifies this” (October 2020 General Conference).